What XI Jinping's Wardrobe Tells Us About His Leadership Style

HONG KONG — Chinese politicians are going through a bit of a
dress-code revolution.

In his first major public visit to the southern city of Shenzhen,
incoming president Xi Jinping set a casual example for his fellow
Communist Party cadres by spurning the usual boxy suit and red
tie for a white shirt, unbuttoned at the collar. In photos of the
event, the six other members of China’s top ruling body, the
Standing Committee, also appeared dressed down — albeit in nearly
identical attire.

Xi also evinced a more genial leadership style, spontaneously
greeting ordinary people in a park during his trip, and eschewing
ceremonial feasts and red-carpet treatment.

In any other country, these minor sartorial and personal details
might not be fodder for political debate, but in the
heavily-symbolic political system of China, such variations are
often taken as real clues to reform.

Think of it as a bit like Silicon Valley in the 1990s: when tech
execs began showing up to work in flip-flops, it represented a
radical re-thinking of corporate culture that eventually
translated into real change in the way companies were run.

So is something like that about to happen in China?

That, apparently, is the message Beijing wants to send to its
people. In the days after Xi’s visit, state-run media have been
full of reports stressing that the changes in style represent an
invigorating shake-up of China’s stultifying bureaucracy.

“A few weeks after taking office, China's new leaders have given
the public a lot to talk about, particularly their attempts to
shake bureaucracy,” says one report in Xinhua. By encouraging
officials to speak freely at meetings, instead of reading
monotonously from prepared scripts, Xi Jinping “marked the latest
move by new leaders to uphold a no-nonsense, down-to-earth style
of work.”

The propaganda push was accompanied by a photo of Xi Jinping on
his inspection tour, plastered on front pages of newspapers
across China. News reports also highlighted that Xi stayed in a
modest hotel room and ate a simple breakfast. Photos circulated
online showed Prime Minister Li Keqiang and fellow Party bosses
squatting and eating instant boiled noodles.

Many Chinese citizens are apparently welcoming the more informal
style. In a survey conducted by the China Youth Daily, 91 percent
of respondents said they dislike officials who speak in clichés,
while 71 percent said political boilerplate harmed people’s trust
in the government.

“Good; a new high leadership, a new lifestyle, a new working
style. I hope what we are seeing is consistent with what actually
exists; if so, there’s great hope for everything,” said a user on
Weibo, in a translation by China Digital Times.

So far, there appears to be some substance to back up the talk of
a Party shake-up. Li Chuncheng, deputy party secretary of the
southwestern province of Sichuan, was fired this week due to
suspected "serious violations of discipline," according to
Chinese state media. He is the highest ranking official to be
sacked since Xi Jinping took office.

In Guangdong Province, authorities have introduced a pilot policy
requiring officials to disclose their assets. On Dec. 11, the
Politburo Central Committee agreed to reduce “extravagance,
formalism and bureaucracy” by banning floral arrangements, fancy
banquets, and red carpets during official visits.

What has many people skeptical is that the Party has talked up
reform frequently in the past, without following through.

“The rhetoric is encouraging, but it is premature to get too
excited as so far we have seen no substantive policy changes,”
says Bill Bishop, an investor and analyst in Beijing.

Phelim Kline, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, pointed
out that there was similar rhetoric around previous president
Hu Jintao, who promised to improve the
rule of law in China, but failed to deliver. “Real substance [is]
needed to earn the ‘reformer’ rep,” he said.

The style changes seem partly intended to counter the daily
drumbeat of sex and corruption scandals that have deeply eroded
public trust in the Communist Party. This week in Jinan city,
officials drew outrage for commissioning a $640 million building
that will be the largest government office building in the world
after the Pentagon. In Shenzhen, an official was recently accused
of skimming off $11 million in public money to feed a gambling
addiction.

“As we’ve seen time and again, China’s leaders are excellent at
producing laws, edicts, speeches and slogans; but are incapable
of ensuring their enforcement,” says Yaxue Cao, a commentator at
Seeing Red in China, a website that covers modern China. “I
believe that the current strategy of the Party is simply to
present the appearance of a clean up.”

Even the state-run Global Times editorial board warned that
simply cosmetic and sartorial changes would no longer meet the
demands of the public.

“If top leaders cannot deliver what they have promised, the
public will not remain silent,” the editors said.

Xi’s reform rhetoric is coming alongside talk of “national
renewal,” a slogan many see as auguring more assertive Chinese
nationalism, particularly in foreign policy. At the same time
that he was pushing for a more low-key style for Communist Party
officials, Xi also forecast a more robust Chinese military.
During his southern China tour, Xi urged the People's Liberation
Army to focus on “real combat” awareness.